POSSIBLY CONNECTED

In January we took a trip out to Cincinnati and chatted with folks around NFTs and web3

It was a really neat conversation and one that we see as an ongoing conversation, we were on a panel moderated by Jeni Barton @mega_ultra_10_thousand for @artswave with artist, NFT collector, educator and collector @annieaburke and Jordan Tate Jordan Tate
Associate Director, School of Art at University of Cincinnati.

This particular panel was unique as at the end the participants were able to successfully obtain a digital wallet and collect their very first NFT by yours truly

We, along with the rest of the planet are still very much so working our way through the possibilities of Web3.0. Here are some brief thoughts on things

The piece shown is called: Possibly Connected
This piece is part of our Computer Cousin Series. We used artificial intelligence to compose this portrait. It was created by inputting a series of complicated prompts to specify style content, light color, and composition. All of these prompts had to account for and work around biases that are evident in the algorithms for the AI generator. This piece is an example of using technology as an assist for creating work. It also brings up many ideas around authenticity, reality, perception possibility, and authorship.

NFTs

Well, let’s start with crypto. It’s not exactly a day-to-day use currency. The whole exchange requires way too much, The design is not simple/accessible enough for day-to-day exchanges. Perhaps it could be in the future, but it’s mostly techy people telling you how easy it is. Well, people who aren’t so techy feel quite alienated. Now let’s get into NFTs as those are backed by cryptocurrency, We have loved the idea of NFTs being a great way of exchange and storytelling. They appear to be way better platforms than social media as they just crowdsource content for very little or free 99. We currently use NFTs as certificates of authenticity for our artworks and plan on releasing a short episodic series of NFTs later this year.

AI

The collective is straight split on artificial intelligence. Some of the members love the possibilities and the ease that it provides, particularly for administrative things, and generating pieces for collage work. other members feel that it is taking over the place that artist occupies. Oftentimes artists, creatives, women, and people of color have not been on the beneficial side of copyright laws, accessibility, and usage and we see this perhaps as being a space that could potentially balance that a bit. We love that our team is split in the center of this and we look forward to seeing how this balances out.

AR

well, if you’re going to be on your phone while in real-life might as well integrate technology into real life. So yeah, we’ll keep playing in the augmented reality space, especially in our murals.

All of these thoughts are subject to change. They’re just reminders to use these things as tools and to mindfully approach all of them.